Earlier this week a Gallup poll indicated that the only group of people Americans trust less than those infesting Congress are car salesmen. Car salesmen actually have a superior profile than does Congress; only 49% have very negative feelings about them versus 54% repelled by Congressmen. Car salesmen can, after all, sometimes be held to the “lemon law.” Senators and Congressmen, on the other hand, can promise anything then deliver nothing once elected. Americans have no recourse for the “lemons” there.

If it really puzzles the masterminds in Congress as to why Americans distrust them so much, perhaps they ought to look at the latest example offered by Harry Reid. On December 4, Harry Reid, vying with The Lyin’ King for the title of “George Orwell’s Preeminent Poster Boy,” did it again. CNN reported: “Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, one of Obamacare’s architects and staunchest supporters, is also the only top congressional leader to exempt some of his staff from having to buy insurance through the law’s new exchanges…” Even Nancy Pelosi didn’t go that far. The Weasel Majority Leader is the only member, of either the House or Senate that has exempted his staff from Obamacare.

Breitbart fleshes out Reid’s hypocrisy: “In September, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Reid told reporters, ‘Let’s stop these really juvenile political games — the one dealing with health care for Senators and House members and our staff. We are going to be part of exchanges, that’s what the law says and we’ll be part of that.’”

Well, for Democrats September was a lifetime ago. That was then … this is now. Breitbart continues: “According to Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson, under the Affordable Care Act a Senator can allow that their committee and leadership staffers keep their attractive federal employee insurance plans. Reid has exercised that option. Jentleson said, ‘We are just following the law.’” Reid and his acolytes aren’t “following the law,” they are taking advantage of a loophole. A loophole that should never have existed.

Reid has been a mad dog off the leash since his master, The Lyin’ King, assumed the presidency. Reid, a mere two weeks ago, changed a 225 year-old rule governing the “nuclear option” in the Senate. In 2008 he shared his love for the constituency: “My staff tells me not to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol.” His original endorsement of The Lyin” King? “Light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” The caring man of the people exhibited a “who cares about kids with cancer anyway?” attitude during his frantic effort to spin a Democrat-caused sequester as a problem that was all about … him.

Now, in a dazzling example of invention, CNN quotes Jim Manley, a former Reid staffer: “the only people hypocritical here are Republicans, who made this an issue in the first place.” We should probably be grateful that George Bush wasn’t cited as the specific culprit.

An unnamed Republican Senate aide has been the only one who, so far, has sardonically pinned the tail on Reid’s donkey: “I’m sure that regular Americans who just lost their insurance will feel comforted to know that Senator Reid’s staff gets to keep their government plan…” George Orwell wrote “Some animals are more equal than others,” as a caution. Reid and his ilk turn the fiction into fact.

The ruling class lives by a different set of rules than the ones they create for the rest of the nation. The stench in Washington D.C. doesn’t originate with summer tourists. Like a fish, that stink comes from the head down.

About the author: Marilyn Assenheim

Marilyn Assenheim was born and raised in New York City. She spent a career in healthcare management although she probably should have been a casting director. Or a cowboy. A serious devotee of history and politics, Marilyn currently lives in the NYC metropolitan area.